Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Tab Clearing...

So I'm watching the Dallas tornado footage in slack-jawed amazement at the sight of semi-trailers getting blown around like leaves and then it hits me: "Holy crap, that was shot from a helicopter!" That dude was earning his danger pay. (EDIT: In comments, Zendo Deb points out that it's likely from a tower cam.)(EDIT AGAIN: Nope. It's a crazy pilot, alright.)

The "shelf-pod" house was interesting, but with essentially zero insulation (other than the books on the shelves) wouldn't be much good in the Midwest. And how do they get to the books on the upper shelves? I didn't see any rolling ladders or other way to get up to the top.

I've built floor-to-ceiling shelves in one bedroom (my wife directed me to get all my SF out of the living and dining rooms under severe penalty), and even there with an 8-foot ceiling I have a hard time getting at the books at the top. There's an e-mail I sent to your roomie a while back with a picture.

Did you ever see the footage from here in Minnesnowta (from back in about 1987, I think) of the tornado taken from the local EyeWash Snooze helicopter? The pilot was 'Nam veteran, and got WAY closer than was safe. Part of that was the fact that with their incredible zoom lenses they look closer than they actually are.

I was watching from the roof of the place where I worked, and while he was still pretty far back, with all of that debris being tossed around, it still didn't look safe.

One more comment...those trailers are mostly just empty space surrounded by the lightest-weight sheet metal and structure that will still roll down the road intact. Naturally, since putting more into them simply wastes weight that could otherwise be put into the cargo.

They've also got a pretty big "sail" area for the wind to hit. The only heavy parts in 'em are the bed, axles, and wheels. It's impressive to see them tossed around like that, but not really unexpected. Heck, a good cross-wind on the freeways around here will typically cause a few semis to get knocked over sideways.

Those trailers weigh about 16k lb., empty. The relative thin-ness of 'em is just that, relative.

Fact is, the structure on those has to be strong enought to allow for tie-down points, not only in the trailer's floor, but in the walls, too. Many loads are strapped to the walls, and secured along a horizontal strap down point, which runs at about 4' high down the length of each interior wall. It is comprised of very heavy guage steel, about 6" tall, with 4" vertical slots spaced about an inch apart. The tie-down ratchet-straps have special tabs wich latch into those slots.

Those trailer walls have to be strong enough for all that, and also to help provide enough torsional stiffness so as to not just pop the trailer's doors clear off of the back of the rig.

All that, just to point out that those 53's aren't just rolling tinfoil.

Just to verify also, that was indeed helicopter footage. Both the newscaster and sometimes, the pilot's narrative clearly indicate that on the audio. Might not come up on edited versions, but it was very apparent when watching it live, in real time.

In an earlier life I would have been in aw of all of the book shelves, but since buying a Kendal I can't imagine needing that much shelving for books and manuals, not available for electronic media. I understand that there may come a day when all electronic devices are useless, but when that day comes I will be traveling to light to take most of my books anyway.

I was in a strip-mall type bookstore when the '89 Loma-Prieta (SF Bay Area) earthquake hit.

All the flying/falling books is what drove me out of the store. I was doing bank-shots off the bookshelves on my way to the door, due to the building bouncing. (The waves in the parking lot were entertaining!)

Japan has earthquakes, too. That house could be deadly without restraints across the bookshelves, as high as they go.

During the May3, 1999 tornado outbreak in OK all three main OKC TV stations had their choppers following the F5 that came through; at one point one of their pilots(on air) mentioned that "We need to pull back, the inflow is trying to pull us into the funnel."

For that matter, one of them was in the air so long he had to land, fuel up, and jump back into chasing it. That had to be the most photographed, videoed and observed funnel ever.